Year 3 is going to be a huge one for Chicago Bears tight end Cole Kmet.
Chicago’s first overall pick in the 2020 draft, the Bears acquired Kmet with the 43rd pick in the second round that year, one of the picks they got from the Las Vegas Raiders in the 2018 trade for Khalil Mack.
He had a quiet rookie campaign in which he caught 28 passes for 243 yards (8.7 yards per catch) and two scores, but Kmet made some solid strides in his second season. After starting just nine games and playing 56% of the team’s offensive snaps as a rookie, Kmet started all 17 games in 2021, playing 83% of Chicago’s snaps. He was second on the team in targets (93), receptions (60) and receiving yards (612) last season, but he failed to get into the end zone even once.
With a new regime in town, it will be more important than ever for the 23-year-old tight end to make an impact on offense — and based on how he looked when he showed up at the team’s voluntary offseason program, he isn’t taking any days off in preparation.
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Kmet Is Looking Jacked at Bears Workouts, Twitter Reacts
In a series of photos shared by the team’s official Instagram and Twitter accounts on April 14, several Bears players can be seen working out at team facilities and hanging at Halas Hall, and one image stood out: that of Kmet walking with starting quarterback Justin Fields.
Bears Nation immediately noticed how hulking the 6-foot-6 tight end looked:
Cole Kmet looks HUGE
The word ‘swole’ was used a lot:
The phrase “built like a house” was also used:
@ChicagoBears @JAttaochu45 @KhariBlasingame @justnfields @ColeKmet Kmet is built like a house we like to see that
So far through his first two seasons, Kmet has had three games in which he netted over 65 yards (all of which came in 2021), but he has yet to have a 100-yard game in his career.
According to Pro Football Focus, Kmet was ninth amongst all tight ends in targets last year (89) and his 612 yards and 60 receptions ranked 12th. After earning 56.9 receiving grade from PFF as a rookie, Kmet finished with a 63.4 mark last year. If he can make another jump in Year 3 the way he did in 2021, he could become a legitimate top-5 threat in the league.
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Kmet Doing All the Right Things
It’s obvious by looking at Kmet he has been putting in work this offseason, and Ron Veal, Fields’ personal QB coach, told 670 The Score that Kmet and receiver Darnell Mooney have been spending extra time working out with Fields this offseason. That can only help their rapport.
Kmet told the media in December of 2021 he’d like to emulate the way one of the league’s best at his position does things: Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro Travis Kelce.
“He’s been the best in the league for a while now,” Kmet said about Kelce. “The rapport he has with his quarterback and his feel for that offense are just pretty special, so definitely things that you watch and you aspire to be like.”
Kmet isn’t in Kelce’s league, but if he keeps working, he has a chance to become one of the better young TEs in the game, and 2022 will go a long way in determining whether that’ll be the case.
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Bears TE Shows Up for Team Workouts Ridiculously Jacked: LOOK